RIA Novosti. Vladimir Putin at the annual press conference answered the question of Ksenia Sobchak on the participation of Alexei Navalny in presidential elections.

The Russian leader compared the blogger with the ex-President of Georgia: «You want to have the squares ran dozens of Saakashvili. Those whom you have named, is Saakashvili the Russian edition. And you want those Saakashvili destabilized the situation in the country?» — said Putin.

He also criticized the campaign slogan Sobchak, who is going to run for President in 2018.

«You go (to election — ed.ed.) under the slogan «Against all». Is that a positive program of action? And what do you propose to solve those problems which we are discussing today?», — said the head of state. Answering a journalist’s question, whether the government is afraid of political competition, Putin said that such fear had not.

«I assure you, the government was not afraid of anyone and not afraid of anyone, the President said. But the government should not be similar to the bearded man, who lazily picks out the cabbage from his beard and looks at how the state is transformed into some muddy puddle from where the oligarchs pick out and catch the Golden fish, as it was in the 90-ies and as it is now happening in Ukraine. We don’t want a second edition of Ukraine for Russia. No, not want and will not allow».

About self-nomination

During the press conference the head of state said he will go to the presidential election as the independent candidate. He noted that counts on the support of citizens and the political forces, who share his views. The question of who will head the campaign headquarters remains open.

In the «United Russia», Putin supported the idea and noted that the party will «help». Speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin gave a positive assessment of the initiative: «the Decision of Vladimir Putin to go on the procedure of self is absolutely logical. Russia’s most popular politician draws on all of society,» — said Volodin.

The CEC reported that Putin will have to gather 300 thousand signatures of voters, and for one region must not be more than 7.5 thousand. According to the Deputy head of the CEC of Nikolay bulaeva, this form of promotion is the most difficult but also one of the most confidence: «Already at the stage of nomination, the voter expresses his position in relation to the candidate, supporting or not supporting his signature his nomination,» said Bulaev reporters.

The election program

Vladimir Putin said that he has almost finished the pre-election program, however, the press conference, he said, is «the wrong format, when it is possible to present». «I would not like to talk about the election program, which I have, as have other candidates, will be, must be. She’s almost already there,» he said.

According to him, the key points of the program will be the development of infrastructure, medicine, education, as well as increasing productivity and incomes.

Putin also offered to release the Russians from arrears of taxes, «the maximum debureacratization way.» This initiative applies both to ordinary citizens and individual entrepreneurs. «It’s somewhere around 15 billion rubles, and for about three million people, noted the President. — People started a business, started working, and that something did not happen. And the taxes on it all earned and accrued. Should be free people of benefit».

No competition

Putin said that to build a balanced political system requires competition, but non-systemic opposition is not yet able to offer people an alternative. «It is important not only to make noise in the squares or in the backstage environment and to talk about the anti-people regime, — said the head of state. — It is important to offer something to make it better». According to Putin, the problem of the opposition lies in the lack of real initiatives and «this agenda, in which people would believe.»

Earlier, the press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov said that the upcoming elections the incumbent President has no competitors: «We see a lot of decent people, but we don’t see competitors,» he said. After that, the liberal democratic party, which in elections is planning to participate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Peskov wrote an open letter in which he expressed disagreement with this position. In a letter to members of the party asked the press Secretary not to evaluate other candidates.